Diablo II: Resurrected Save File Location (PC)

Every offline Diablo II: Resurrected character on PC lives in one Windows folder:

C:\Users\<your name>\Saved Games\Diablo II Resurrected\

That is the standard Windows location, tied to your Windows user account — not to where you installed the game, and not to which store you bought it from. Battle.net, Steam and Game Pass installs all use the same Saved Games path for offline saves, because the save location is per Windows user, not per store. This guide explains what each file in the folder is, how to reveal the folder if you cannot see it, and why online characters never appear there at all. Once you have found the folder, back it up before you edit anything in it.

How to open the save folder

1. Press Windows key + R, type %USERPROFILE%\Saved Games\Diablo II Resurrected and press Enter — this opens the folder directly, whatever your user name is. Or open File Explorer and navigate manually:
2. Open This PC > Local Disk (C:) > Users > your user name.
3. Open Saved Games, then Diablo II Resurrected.
4. If you do not see Saved Games, enable hidden items in File Explorer: View > Show > Hidden items (Windows 11) or the Hidden items checkbox on the View ribbon (Windows 10). The folder is not normally hidden, but a tidy Explorer view can hide parts of the path.

Tip: create a desktop shortcut to this folder. You will visit it before every editing session, every backup and every restore, including when you follow the D2CE user guide.

What each file is

• CharacterName.d2s — one per offline character. This is the character save itself: stats, skills, inventory, quests and waypoints. It is the file you open in an editor such as D2CE.
• SharedStashSoftCoreV2.d2i (shared stash, .d2i) — the shared stash shared by your softcore offline characters. Note that .d2i is a reused extension: in classic Diablo II workflows a .d2i file was an item export file. In the D2R save folder, the .d2i you find is the shared stash — do not confuse the two, and do not delete it thinking it is a stray export. See editing the shared stash.
• CharacterName.bak — D2CE backup. Created when D2CE’s “Backup Character Before Save” option is on (it is on by default). It is the previous version of that character, and it is what restoring a save uses first.
• Settings and key-binding files — small configuration files the game maintains in the same area. You do not need them for character editing, but a full-folder backup should include them anyway.

Hardcore characters follow the same pattern, with their own character .d2s files and a separate hardcore shared stash. If a character you expect is missing from the folder, check first whether it is an online character (see below) and second whether you are logged into Windows as a different user — each Windows user has their own Saved Games folder.

Online characters have no local file

Online (Battle.net) characters are stored on Blizzard’s servers. There is no .d2s for them anywhere on your PC, nothing to open in an editor, and no way to convert an offline character into an online one or the other way round. Any tool or service claiming it can edit your online character from a file is misdescribing what it does — the full explanation is in can you edit online D2R characters? Console saves work the same way: cross-progression syncs online characters, it does not produce an editable PC file.

Mod saves live somewhere else

Saves created while playing a mod generally live under the game’s own mods subfolder pattern rather than in the main Saved Games folder — typically a mods folder inside the Diablo II Resurrected installation, with a save subfolder per mod. That separation is deliberate: it keeps modded characters apart from your unmodded ones. D2CE’s documentation covers known mod saves such as BTDiablo and Rebirth, but the exact subfolder name depends on the mod, so check the mod’s own documentation before assuming a character is lost. Do not move files between the mod folder and the main folder unless a guide for that specific mod tells you to.

Steam and Game Pass installs

Because the path is defined by Windows (your user’s Saved Games folder), it does not change when the game itself is installed through a different launcher. A Steam library on a D: drive or a Game Pass install in an Xbox Games folder still reads and writes offline saves in C:\Users\<your name>\Saved Games\Diablo II Resurrected\. If you recently switched launchers and your characters “disappeared”, look in that folder first — in most cases the files never moved, and the new install simply needs to be pointed at the same Windows account.

What to do with the folder

• Back it up whole — copying the entire folder is faster and safer than picking files. See how to back up D2R saves.
• Edit one file at a time — open a single .d2s in D2CE, save, and verify in-game before touching the next.
• Never edit while the game is running — close D2R first, every time.
• Keep the .bak files — they cost almost no disk space and are your fastest restore path.

New to the site? The guides hub organises every walkthrough by job, and the FAQ answers the most common save-file questions in short form.